Tuesday, January 31, 2017

To fulfill his campaign promise to nominate a hyper conservative pro life judge Donald Trump has put forth Neil Gorsuch, a federal appeals judge in Denver, as his pick for the Supreme Court.

In an announcement that was scheduled for Thursday but moved up to tonight to take the attention off his Muslim Ban, Trump announced that Gorsuch will replace the Court seat left vacant by Antonin Scalia, who died last February.

Trump made the announcement during a bizarre televised prime-time broadcast which is considered highly unusual and inappropriate for proceedings as these.

Democrats will most likely be on the offensive and under increasing pressure to block or deny the nomination due to the Republican's year long obstruction of President Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland.

If confirmed, Gorsuch, 49, would bring to the bench a conservative record lusted after by the Federalist Society, a group that helped Trump put together his Supreme Court wish list.

Here is a small list of Gorsuch's cases that will get make any self respecting religious right, conservative, Obama-hater salivate...

• In a 2013 ruling in the well-known Hobby Lobby case, in which he sided with the privately owned chain, Grouch argued that Hobby Lobby would prevail with the argument that the Affordable Care Act “substantially burdened their religious exercise.”

• Gorsuch then wrote in a separate opinion that individual business owners had the same right to deny comprehensive health care from their employees.

• He made a similar decision in Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged v. Burwell, where he wrote in a dissent that if your religious beliefs come into conflict with facts and the law, your religion should take precedence.

• Gorsuch dissented in Summum v. Pleasant Grove City, a major case involving a Ten Commandments monument. In that case, officials in Pleasant Grove, Utah allowed a privately donated Christian monument to be placed on public property.

• In the case of American Atheists v. Davenport, Gorsuch said Christian crosses could be erected on public property (to honor fallen officers) with the blessing of the Utah Highway Patrol because they didn’t promote Christianity.

• Gorsuch defended gun possession, as described in his dissent on the 2012 United States v. Games-Perezcase. According to the case, defendant Miguel Games-Perez owned a gun after having been convicted of a felony he didn't know he committed. He added that there is "a long tradition of widespread lawful gun ownership by private individuals"

Unlike the scathing statement Mrs.Yates recieved for her firing that accused her of having “betrayed” the Justice Department Trump decided to relieve the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Daniel Ragsdale, with little fanfare.

After the firing the newly confirmed DHS secretary, John Kelly, released a statement announcing that Thomas Homan had been named the new acting director of ICE.

The DHS statement, which oddly never mentioned Daniel Ragsdale, claimed that Homan...

“led ICE’s efforts to identify, arrest, detain, and remove illegal aliens, including those who present a danger to national security or are a risk to public safety, as well as those who enter the United States illegally or otherwise undermine the integrity of our immigration laws and our border control efforts,”

Many believe the hiring of Homan, who most recently led the arm of ICE that enforces detentions and deportations, signals the intent of the Trump administration to place a greater emphasis on the harsh enforcement measures but that it also raises the possibility that Trump might attempt to carry out his campaign threat to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States.

Monday, January 30, 2017

In a stunning move Donald Trump has fired the acting Attorney General Sally Yates mere hours after she announced that the Justice Department would not defend Trump’s executive order on immigration.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer announced late Monday night that Yates had been "relieved of her duties" and replaced by, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Dana Boente.

During his statement Spicer claimed that Yates had been replaced because she “betrayed the Department of Justice”.

A quick historical note...

The last President to fire his Attorney General was Richard Nixon in an incident that came to be known as the "Saturday Night Massacre". It occurred during the Watergate crisis when Nixon ordered then-Attorney General Eliot Richardson to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who had issued a subpoena to President Nixon, asking for copies of taped conversations recorded in the Oval Office. Richardson refused to fire Cox and resigned in protest. Not long after, William Ruckelshaus took over as the new acting attorney general, and when he refused the same action, he wasn't given the option to resign. Instead, Nixon fired him.

It was not long after this Nixon resigned in disgrace. Let's hope that history, which has a habit of repeating itself, follows that same trajectory.

Before Yates’ letter, the Justice Department said that the Office of Legal Counsel at DOJ had cleared the executive order but as Yates made clear in her letter, that review was focused on the narrow question of whether it is lawful on its face and properly drafted and...

“does not address whether any policy choice embodied in an Executive Order is wise or just.”

Trump of course attacked Yates on twitter implying that her decision stemmed from the fact that she was an appointee of President Obama...

Trump’s order faces multiple lawsuits, and several courts had already issued orders that led to the release of some individuals detained due to the executive order. But the refusal of the Justice Department to defend the order leaves it in legal limbo.

Read the full text of Yates’ letter below...

On January 27, 2017, the President signed an Executive Order regarding immigrants and refugees from certain Muslim-majority countries. The order has now been challenged in a number of jurisdictions. As the Acting Attorney General, it is my ultimate

responsibility to determine the position of the Department of Justice in these actions.My role is different from that of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), which, through administrations of both parties, has reviewed Executive Orders for form and legality before they are issued. OLC’s review is limited to the narrow question of whether, in OLC’s view, a proposed Executive Order is lawful on its face and properly drafted. Its review does not take account of statements made by an administration or it surrogates close in time to the issuance of an Executive Order that may bear on the order’s purpose. And importantly, it does not address whether any policy choice embodied in an Executive Order is wise or just.

Similarly, in litigation, DOJ Civil Division lawyers are charged with advancing reasonable legal arguments that can be made supporting an Executive Order. But my role as leader of this institution is different and broader. My responsibility is to ensure that the position of the Department of Justice is not only legally defensible, but is informed by our best view of what the law is after consideration of all the facts. In addition, I am responsible for ensuring that the positions we take in court remain consistent with this institution’s solemn obligation to always seek justice and stand for what is right. At present, I am not convinced that the defense of the Executive Order is consistent with these responsibilities nor am I convinced that the Executive Order is lawful.

Consequently, for as long as I am the Acting Attorney General, the Department of Justice will not present arguments in defense of the Executive Order, unless and until I become convinced that it is appropriate to do so.

According to daily polls tracked by Gallup Donald Trump’s net approval rating dropped a stunning eight points in just his first week in the Oval Office.

Two days after being sworn in, an already record low 45 percent of respondents said they disapproved of Trump’s job performance to the 45 percent who approved. But by Friday Jan. 27, the percentage who disapproved rose to 50 and percentage who approved dipped to 42.

The precipitous drop is not hard to understand if you look at Trump's rocky first week in office which saw him sign executive orders that ban refugees and citizens from seven majority-Muslim nations and start a ridiculous feud with Mexican president Enrique Peña-Nieto over his insistence that Mexico will pay for a southern border wall that the country does not want. Oh yeah, let's not forget the crowd size/alternative fact thing happened too.

Other national surveys show similarly low approval ratings for Trump.

A Quinnipiac University poll released last Thursday showed that Donald Trump entered into his new job facing the lowest ever first week job approval ratings ever as it showed only 36 percent of voters approved of Trump's handling of his job to 44 percent who say they disapprove...

Saturday, January 28, 2017

A federal court in New York tonight granted an emergency stay on Trump's executive order that bans immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries for two Iraqi men who had valid visas to enter the United States but were detained today when they arrived in the US.

The emergency ruling, issued by Judge Ann Marie Donnelly has granted an emergency national stay, freezing Trumps' the executive order.

The stay proclaims a stay on those who are being detained at national airports cannot be sent back to their country of origin, the government must release a list of all those detained and confirmation of when the detainees will be released.

The stay applies to detainees already in the United States, or those mid-flight, as the White House announced the migrant crackdown.

The suit brought by the ACLU, which was filed on behalf of the two men, contended that the stay applied nationally to all cases.

The ACLU's director of Voting Rights Project Dale Ho

Dale Ho, ACLU’s director of Voting Rights Project proclaimed that...

"The stay is granted, the stay is national!"

They are calling the first victory in a long line of fights against Donald Trump and his administration.

Despite the celebrations by the ACLU over the swift reversal, the Trump administration will still have the opportunity to sign further executive action to thwart this first blow against his call to ban Muslims nationwide.

Protestors also gathered at Washington Dulles International Airport, Chicago O'Hare International Airport, Dallas-Fort Worth Airport and San Francisco International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport where several people are detained as per the directive in Trump's executive order.

Today the order has been revised and now excludes the one humane provision, which appeared in an earlier draft, that promised the establishment of safe zones in Syria.

That clause would have instructed the Secretary of Defense to draft a plan within 90 days to create “safe zones to protect vulnerable Syrian populations,” according to the version released on Wednesday.

That clause is now effectively dead.

Trump's decision to strike safe zones from the proposal allows him to avoid questions that such a policy would raise such as increasing American military intervention in Syria and the political and logistical problems regarding it's implementation.

Trump apparently wants no part of the hard choices enacting a safe zone would entail large amounts of resources, military personnel and money to implement.

There is also the tough decision that arises, if the United States pursues a safe zone inside Syria, of whether to do so as part of an agreement with Russia, Iran, Turkey and President Bashar Assad’s government ― all of whom have forces fighting in Syria.

Without an agreement with the Assad regime a safe zone could be a potential target for the ISIS, Russian airstrikes and pro-Assad forces. Defending such a haven would likely require significant security, and potentially create the conditions for the U.S. or other governments’ forces coming into conflict with Russia or Assad.

Defending a safe zone could push the U.S. or other government forces deeper into Syria’s conflict.

Trump wants no part of this as it requires him to make choices that might not be popular with his voters who would view aiding Muslims in any manner as a betrayal of his promises to them.

At the Pentagon for a swearing-in ceremony for his new Defense Secretary Ret. Gen. James "Mad Dog" Mattis, Donald Trump signed two new executive orders.

One of them vowed to make major changes to America’s policies on refugees and immigration that Trump claimed would keep foreign terrorists from entering the US and the other on rebuilding the military.

Trump said of the first executive order...

“I am establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America. We don’t want them here. We don’t want to admit into our country the very threats we are fighting overseas.”

As it was not clear what’s in the order the president signed on live television, hours later the White House released details of the executive order titled...

“Protecting The Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into The United States.”

Included in the order is...

• An indefinite suspension of the United States’ Syrian refugees program. order directs the State Department to stop issuing visas to Syrian nationals and halts the processing of Syrian refugees. This includes all women and all children of any age.

• A call for the Pentagon and the State Department to create a plan for safe zones in and around Syria to offer protection for Syrians fleeing the war there.

• A 120-day suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program intended to provide time to review how refugees are vetted before they are allowed to resettle in the United States.

• A cap of the number of refugees from other countries at 50,000 people in in fiscal year 2017, saying more than that “would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.”

• The action says that when U.S. Refugee Admissions Program admissions resume, the Secretary of State in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security is directed to make changes, to the extent permitted by law, “to prioritize refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution, provided that the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual’s country of nationality.” (In other words anyone but Muslims).

• The order directed officials to the review the refugee application and approval process to find any other security measures that can be added to prevent people who pose a threat from using the refugee program.

• The implementation of a suspension of all immigration from countries with terrorism concerns for 90 days. It was unclear which countries would be affected, though a leaked draft of the order pointed to a legal provision that identified Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, all majority-Muslim countries, for at least 30 days.

• A call for Homeland Security and State Department officials, along with the director of national intelligence, to review what information the government needs to fully vet would-be visitors and come up with a list of countries that don’t provide it.

• A 60 day time limit to other countries to provide the information or citizens from those countries will be barred from traveling to the United States.

Mr. Trump also signed another executive action promising “a great rebuilding of the armed services of the United States.” as Mr. Trump promised, among other things, new planes, new ships, resources and tools for the nation’s men and women in uniform.

There was, however, no mention of how his administration planned to pay for any of the new planes, new ships, resources and tools.

We all know Donald Trump is incapable of admitting he is wrong even when it comes to the most trivial of issues. We all know this goes double when it comes to the matter of size.

So let us ask a question...

How do you feel about your tax dollars going to fund an investigation so Trump won't have to admit Hillary Clinton's vote count was bigger than his?

Well he's doing it whether you like it or not as he has already called for an investigation into his thoroughly debunked claim that upwards of 5 million immigrates voted in our US elections?

All of this just so the man-baby won't have to admit that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by 3 million people.

Trump backed his way into this mess when he told congressional leaders on Monday that “3 to 5 million” undocumented immigrants cost him the popular vote by casting ballots for Hillary Clinton, and now refuses to accept the fact that it just isn't so.

Nonetheless Trump on Wednesday again vowed an "investigation" into alleged voter fraud tweeting...

The Justice Department, which would investigate violations of the federal voting rights laws, declined comment Wednesday on the president’s call for an inquiry.

Now, whether or not this was Trump's original intent, congressional Democrats are saying his plan all along was to use the claim to institute new voter qualification rules, making it harder for people to vote in general.

Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said that Republicans may be seeking...

"another tool and another reason" to ''deny people the vote."

Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., said that...

"if this is the beginning of an effort to suppress legitimate voters from exercising their rights, I will fight like hell against it."

Voting rights groups also expressed dismay as Myrna Pérez, director of the Voting Rights and Elections Project at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, said...

“Voter fraud and threats of voter fraud have been used throughout this country’s history — and very recently in a numerous amount of circumstances — to justify policies that don’t make our elections more secure and suppress voters,"

Even Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted — a Republican — retweeted Trump and said...

"We conducted a review 4 years ago in Ohio & already have a statewide review of 2016 election underway. Easy to vote, hard to cheat."

Other Republicans have also suggested that Trump stop claiming voter fraud, or at least provide evidence of it.

Sen. John McCain said during a televised interview...

"I think that those who allege that have to come up with some substantiation of the claim,"

The Senate's top Republican, Mitch McConnell said...

"There are always arguments on both sides about how much, how frequent and all the rest."

You know you have issues when even in this most partisan of times you can't even get members of your own party to back you up in an argument of who has the biggest throng.

In what is being called a glaring gaffe President Trump did not mention the deaths of six million Jews let alone the Jewish people in his statement marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The head of the Anti-Defamation League has called the omission both “puzzling and troubling.” as in past statements, either by Democrats or Republicans, the Jewish people and their plight were alway given mention.

The three-paragraph statement Trump released on Friday read...

Click image for a larger view

Shortly after the comments were released Jonathan Greenblatt, the national director of the ADL, tweeted that The White House statement along with some of with Trump’s remarks...

Trump's generic phrasing is a stunning contrast to that of President Obama’s fuller statements on the occasion, which always spoke about the sufferings of the Jewish people. This becomes even more unsettling as Trump has consistently portrayed President Obama as a foe of the Jews and Israel.

To anyone who reads this I guarantee this was done on intentionally for the sole purpose of sending out a clear clarion call to Trump's alt-right (anti-Semitic) base. I also guarantee it was penned by, Donald Trump's Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor, Steve Bannon.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Day was established by the United Nations in 2005 to commemorate the deaths of the six million Jews as well as an estimated two million Roma and thousands of disabled and gay people at the hands of the Nazis.

Friday, January 27, 2017

Right after Trump won the election, instead of taking a moment to contemplate the enormity of the task he was soon to undertake, Trump instead thought... Hmmm... How can I cash in on this thing right now.

So as of Jan. 1st, a full, twenty three days after winning the election and eleven days before his inauguration, Mar-a-Lago, the Palm Beach resort owned by the Trump Organization, doubled its initiation fee to $200,000 plus tax. And don't forget that on top of the $200,000 initiation fee members also pay $14,000 a year in annual dues... plus tax.

One of the reasons the Trumps believe new Mar-a-Lago members would be wiling to shell out an extra $100,000 is because Trump plans to use the resort as his "Winter White House" which would in turn give new patrons a chance to mingle with the his holiness.

Trump and those in his employ have chosen not to respond to the allegation that they are attempting to benefit from the election results.

After the fee hike was revealed, top White House ethics lawyer Norm Eisen said that the increase is a...

"not very subtle exploitation of the fact that the club's figurehead is now president of the U.S. This type of naked profiteering off of a government office is what I would expect from King Louis XVI or his modern kleptocratic equivalents, not an American president,"

There's no way of knowing whether demand for memberships has grown. The initiation fee for Mar-a-Lago had been $100,000 since 2012, when it was cut from $200,000. People close to the resort said the fee was reduced following a precipitous decline in memberships which just happens to align with the beginning of Trump's racist birther campaign against President Obama.

Despite the accusations of charging access to Trump CEO Eric Danziger still sees more ways to cash in on their current situation saying...

"There are 26 major metropolitan areas in the U.S., and we're in five," "I don't see any reason that we couldn't be in all of them eventually."

Another spokesman for Trump Hotels started that the company sees...

"significant growth opportunity in the United States for both our hotel brands."

“America’s infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay. We will build new roads and highways and bridges and airports and tunnels and railways all across our wonderful nation.”

This was just one of Trump's many mentions of the state of the country’s infrastructure on the campaign trail which always wound up with a pledge to spend $1 trillion dollars to address it.

Here's where we run into some trouble. When the general public got a look at the plan Trump released let's just say it didn’t exactly live up to the hype.

Instead, spending the "trillion dollars" to rectify the countries woeful "roads and highways and bridges and airports and tunnels and railways" it instead only offers tax credits to private firms that are interested in infrastructure projects with profit potential.

In other words, he will give money to to private firms who would then undertake projects that would charge Americans user fees and tolls.

Trump’s even had the gall to promise that his plan wouldn't cost the government anything as the real price would be passed down to any users who have to pay more in tolls and fees to use whatever was built.

In the end Trump’s proposal of a tax credit plan has a next to zero chance of incentivizing any new projects let alone addressing our countries failing infrastructure.

To call Trump out on his scam Senate Democrats offered up their own $1 trillion plan.

The Democrat's proposal will, unlike Trump's plan, directly address the dilapidated infrastructure this country is experiencing.

The plan includes:

• $210 billion to upgrade roads and bridges

• $110 billion to repair water and sewer systems

• $180 billion for railways and bus systems

• $100 billion for energy infrastructure

• $75 billion to fix schools

• $20 billion to install more broadband capacity

• $20 billion to go to public and tribal land maintenance

• $10 billion to upgrade Veterans Affairs hospitals.

Schumer said...

“Our urban and rural communities have their own unique set of infrastructure priorities, and this proposal would provide funding to address those needed upgrades that go beyond the traditional road and bridge repair. Each day, too many students attend school in buildings so decrepit the pipes leach lead into their drinking water, our country’s heroes sit in VA hospitals that are crumbling beneath them, and millions in rural communities cannot kick-start local business because they lack access to the critical high-speed Internet they need.”

The senators proposed paying for their plan by closing tax loopholes.

Unfortunately since it is Democrat's who are putting forth the plan there is almost no chance of it coming to fruition. There is also the fact that it would require actual money to be spent and no chance to enrich any of Trump's buddies.

Faced with call out by Democrat's Trump appear's to be backtracking on his call for a $1 trillion package as he sent out his infrastructure adviser, real estate developer Richard LeFrak, who said...

“I think he’d like it to start with a ‘T,’ but I think the number I’ve heard tossed around is around $550 billion.”

Thursday, January 26, 2017

Today Donald Trump, during a visit to the Department of Homeland Security, signed one executive order that promises to build a wall on the border between Mexico the US and another calling for a crackdown on sanctuary cities.

For the event Trump came armed with human props for those watching at home. He shamelessly surrounded himself with mothers and fathers of people killed by undocumented immigrants as he promised that DHS would create a new office focused on the victims of unauthorized immigration.

During Trump's sales pitch he made it abundantly clear that his concern was not how his policies would affect undocumented immigrants but instead sold the deal almost solely in terms of those who have killed American citizens...

“[People] talk about how enforcing immigration law is going to separate illegal immigrant families. But the families they don’t talk about are the families of Americans forever separated from the people they love. They don’t talk about it, ever. As your president, I have no higher duty than to protect the lives of the American people.”

Trump's executive orders would, if enacted, end the “catch-and-release” policy that deports certain unauthorized border-crossers without extended detention, put more pressure on countries to accept back their nationals, hire thousands more border patrol and immigration enforcement agents and expand the outgoing administration's focus on border-crossers and convicted criminals to include a broader swath of undocumented immigrants.

Although he claimed throughout the campaign that Mexico would pay for it, Trump now says the U.S. government would have to finance the construction before being reimbursed by Mexico at a later date.

As for Trump's executive order concerning sanctuary cities, a broad term for jurisdictions that do not fully cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement efforts, it states that those who do not comply with it's measures may lose federal law enforcement grants. In addition it declares that the federal government would "shame" those cities into compliance by posting a list of the crimes committed by undocumented immigrants in jurisdictions that declined ICE’s requests to hold certain people.

The order states...

“Jurisdictions that willfully refuse to comply are not eligible to receive Federal grants, except as deemed necessary for law enforcement purposes by the attorney general or the secretary.”

Many leaders in jurisdictions that have sanctuary cities - which include: New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco - have said they have no intention of altering policy based on Trump’s threats.

In addition to the two executive orders Trump also signed directives that would make effectively make every undocumented immigrant a priority for deportation.

In related news Trump is scheduled to meet with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on Tuesday. Nieto has rejected repeatedly Trump’s claims that Mexico will pay for a border wall saying earlier this month saying that...

“At no time will we accept anything that goes against our dignity as a country and our dignity as Mexicans"

Mexico has also threatened to walk away from economic talks with the U.S. is Trump continues his insistence on having Mexico pay for the wall or impede remittances from Mexican nationals.

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

The orders are basically a right wing voter's wet dream as it is the Obama administration's agenda in reverse.

It rolls back everything from healthcare to a woman's right to choose to environmental protections and regulations.

Here’s the list of Trump’s destructive executive actions so far...

1: Obamacare Rollback

Mr. Trump has allowed all agency heads to waive requirements of the Affordable Care Act to the “maximum extent permitted by law.”

2: Regulation Freeze

Trump has seen fit to freeze all regulations now in process (but not approved) until they are approved by him or an agency after he took office. This means any regulation signed by former President Barack Obama in his final weeks in office — including some that deal with energy efficiency standards — are on hold until they’re reviewed by Trump’s administration.

3: Abortion Restrictions

This order reinstates the Global Gag Rule which bars any US foreign aid from going to any nongovernmental organization that provide abortion services. It will cause thousands of women will die across the world, and millions will lose access to both safe abortion and birth control.

4: Withdrawal From The TPP

This memorandum withdraws the United States from all Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations and from signing the trade deal. It formally pulls the US out of massive 12-nation trade deal that covers 40 percent of world's economy and will allow China to rewrite it's economic rules at the expense of American workers.

5: Federal Hiring Freeze

The president has told agencies they cannot fill any vacant positions nor open new ones, with two exceptions: military personnel and critical public safety positions. This measure will even stop hiring at the Department of Veterans Affairs which will hurt Trump's favorite props.

6: Speeding Approval Of The Dakota Access Pipeline

President Trump ordered that permits for the the Dakota Access Pipeline be approved in an expedited manner, “including easements or rights-of-way to cross Federal areas.” If approved it will pave the way for a 1,172-mile pipeline from North Dakota to Illinois.

7: Speeding Approval Of The Keystone XL Oil Pipeline

In the Keystone memorandum Trump invited TransCanada to resubmit its application for a pipeline permit, and he directed the State Department to issue a final decision on that application within 60 days. If approved it will pave the way for a 1,179-mile cross-border pipeline from Alberta to Nebraska. Trump reportedly owns stock in Energy Transfer Partners which is building the pipeline.

9: American Steel In New Oil Pipelines

President Trump directed the Commerce Secretary to come up with a plan to ensure that all pipelines built or repaired in the United States be constructed with American-made materials.

8: Speeding Up Environmental Reviews For All Priority Infrastructure

Trump ordered that agencies and the chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality work together to speedup deadlines and environmental approval for “high priority” infrastructure projects. It will give significant power and responsibility to the White House Council on Environmental Quality chairman whom the Trump administration has not even nominated yet.

10: Review Manufacturing Regulations

In this memorandum orders the Commerce Secretary to begin a 60-day review of regulations for American manufacturers, with the aim of finding ways to speed up permitting and all federal processes for them. What are the chances something will be missed or overlooked?

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

According to congressional leaders from both parties Donald Trump apparently displayed some odd and worrisome behavior during their Monday evening meeting.

As reported by those in attendance the meeting, billed as a get-to-know-you session with Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate, began with a preoccupied Trump relitigating the results of the presidential election's popular vote. A vote which he lost handily to his Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton.

Reports say Trump spoke at length on the subject declaring that the vote discrepancy was due to the fact that millions of “illegals” voted for Clinton.